Across The Nation

Posted: April 29, 2012 - 11:04pm

Across The Nation

NEW YORK

An out-of-control van careered across several lanes of traffic on a New York City highway overpass Sunday, then plunged more than 50 feet off the side of the road and landed in a ravine on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo, killing all seven people aboard, authorities said.

Three of the victims were children, fire department spokesman Jim Long said, including girls ages 12 and 10 and a younger girl whose age wasn’t known. The others were an 84-year-old man and three women, ages 80, 45 and 30. Long didn’t name them.

The van was headed south on the highway that cuts through a working-class neighborhood when it bounced off the median, crossed all southbound lanes and hit the guardrail, police said. Next to the guardrail is a pedestrian path, and the 4-foot-high iron fence between that walkway and the ground below was intact after the accident, meaning the van likely flipped over it.

The van landed nearly upside down on zoo property that’s closed to the public and far from any animal exhibits, zoo spokeswoman Mary Dixon said.

It’s not clear what caused the van to go out of control. The southbound side of the highway was closed briefly Sunday afternoon while police investigated.

WASHINGTON

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says the U.S. should do everything it can to protect a Chinese activist who escaped house arrest and was reported to be hiding in the U.S. embassy in Beijing.

In a statement released Sunday, Romney said the incident involving Chen Guangcheng points toward the broader issue of human rights and that the U.S. should help to reform the communist regime. Chen exposed forced abortions and sterilizations as a result of China’s one-child policy.

“Any serious U.S. policy toward China,” said Romney, “must confront the facts of the Chinese government’s denial of political liberties, its one-child policy and other violations of human rights.”

President Barack Obama has not spoken publicly on the incident, which comes on the eve of diplomatic talks with Beijing.

ST. LOUIS

St. Louis officials are expected to more closely scrutinize the large tents commonly set up near downtown stadiums after one of the temporary structures collapsed in high winds Saturday, resulting in the death of an Illinois man and dozens of injuries after a baseball game.

Sam Dotson, a spokesman for Mayor Francis Slay, said it’s unclear if adequate regulations were in place and being followed Saturday or if the disaster was simply the result of people not paying attention to severe weather warnings.

“This tent was inspected, but we need to make sure there weren’t modifications to it,” he said.

The fast-moving storm ripped a large beer tent at Kilroy’s Sports Bar from its moorings and sent it and debris hurtling through the air about 80 minutes after the end of a St. Louis Cardinals game.